Un Seen Me

Dr Shanali Perera brings her solo exhibition UN SEEN ME to SEESAW on Princess Street, running from Thursday 19 November. It's the first time her acrylic collection is being shown in full, and the whole thing comes from a bit of a life-shift: Perera is a Sri Lankan-born, Manchester-based interdisciplinary artist and a former rheumatologist. She developed vasculitis, a rare autoimmune illness that made continuing her clinical career impossible, and turned to art first through digital work and then acrylic painting and mixed media. She works fragments of medical journals, prescriptions and medication foils into the pieces, giving form to what she calls the 'embodied invisible'.

Drawing on her dual perspective as both physician and patient-turned-artist, the exhibition asks what remains unseen when illness becomes the lens through which a person is understood. It shifts the act of looking from clinical observation towards lived experience, identity and personhood. The show marks the first complete presentation of Living, Loving, Mess (2021-2026), her inaugural acrylic collection, and it sits alongside work across digital and moving image, hybrid media and transformed objects. The opening night includes a panel conversation titled 'Seeing Beyond the Visible'.

There are a few ways to catch it. The opening preview and panel are on Thursday 19 November, 6-9pm. After that, the public exhibition runs on Friday 20, Monday 23 and Tuesday 24 November, 10am-4pm. Entry is free, and you'll find it at SEESAW, 86 Princess Street, Manchester M1 6NG.